My wife's first "tour" with me on the GSA ..

[Goose]

Yes she's been with me on short rides of a few hours or so.......... but we wanted to try a longer more challenging ride...... why?

1. To see if she was capable of packing limited stuff for a long weekend
2. To see whether she'd be able to hack being a long-distance pillion and whether we'd "gell" as a team!


My wife's first "tour" with me on the back of the GSA was done with a mate and his wife on their GSA
Both of the girls were novice pillion riders....... neither had ever been offroad on a bike......

Initially we had a 3 hour ride to get to "The Baths" - an old Victorian Hot Spring in the Mountains. This was to be our "base" to allow us to do trips into the Cederberg Mountains. This was great and I suppose allowed the initial jitter-bugs to settle as we planned and discussed the route ahead.

Early on Saturday morning - we mounted up for what turned out to be a 9-hour ride through stunning scenery down some serious donkey tracks at low speed added to their excitement/fear.

Frequent stops, taking pics, swimming in the mountain streams, having a cuppa or just to discuss the route - changed what could have been a helluva ordeal for the girls into an adventure both thoroughly enjoyed. and the day was ended with the girls relaxing in the Hot springs on our return.

Just a few pics to show the girls and how they coped with the roads and route we rode.....

..... and just a note on the temperature - it was 44deg C



VERDICT at the end of the trip - the girls loved it, loved the fact that we were constantly considerate of their comfort and kept them in the loop of where and how we were riding. Intercom helped to converse.... and made a huge difference to them - instead of having them sit in total silence.

Now the girls constantly nag us to go and ride..... and both LOVE dirt!!

 

[rodsharp]

My wife first came with me about 8 years ago and now I cant get her in the car ,always has to be the bike. Off to Tuscany soon for this years trip.
Whats unusual with that I hear you ask Nothing except we are both nearer 70 than 60. Must be mad all our friends say ,but they haven't tried it so don't know what they are missing.

 

[Yellow Peril]

IMHO I think :- "considerate of their comfort and kept them in the loop" helps a lot don't ride like an arse and remember there is someone on the back.

SWMBO spends most of her time taking pictures from the back of the bike these days,


This Saturday was spent experimenting with a new camera, no longer is a camera choosen for static shots, but how quick it starts and how good it is on the go.

These days on long motorway trips she'll snooze you can always tell if you have to slow down a bit quick you get a thump on the back of the helmet.

 

[Browny]

Fantastic! Sounds like it was a great trip for all 4 of you!

Great photos.

 

[Paul Rochdale]

I was wondering where in Orpington were the Cederberg Mountains so I had to look them up.

http://www.cederberg.com/

 

[adventuredon]

love the berg. Road through a couple of years ago in a car and missed my bike sooo much! Loved getting the rental car filthy!

 

[gspod]

This is definitely the way to go if you want the ONE you love to love the THING you love.

This is exactly the approach I took 20 years ago: After 5 years pillion my wife took her test and for the last 15 years she has been my perfect biking partner.
We've been all over Europe and next year it's RTW .

I know loads of blokes who scared their girlfriends/wives to death on the back and now they are restricted to time on their bikes because they alienated them.

Keep up the good work

 

[doctorsmudge]

Congratulations

Well done (possibly) in making the whole experience enjoyable for the other halves. Going through the same process now with my missus. She works in insurance and health and safety so you can guess her thoughts on motorbikes before we met.

After some gentle persuasion she joined me for a few short runs.............and now, well now for her first proper run we are heading from the west cost of scotland to the south of Spain for a three week jaunt. It'll kill her or cure her for good. Roll on July

 

[gspod]

I'll offer a little advice if you don't mind because that's exactly what I did after 3 months of pottering around we went down to Portugal and back in 3 weeks.

It may be an adventure to you but to her it will be a holiday, to you it's a biking holiday to her it's a holiday on a motorbike. Make it enjoyable and not a chore, make sure you do holiday stuff and have days off the bike.

Regular short stops will stop arse ache from starting. Don't chase a destination, if she wants to stop then do so - everywhere is lovely in France and spain.

Don't want to teach grandma to suck eggs but I believe it's worth the effort early on for a fantastic biking future together. If someone had told my wife all those years ago that she'd be taking me pillion up over a couple of Cols in the Alps for days ride she would have just laughed (I'm 6'4" and 16 stone). Oh and don't forget wine tasting round Burgundy on the back of the bike

 

[doctorsmudge]

Thanks for the advice, I did the self same thing with the ex years ago for three weeks around France. I've got us booked really nice accommodation every night, 6 days on the coast at Nerja then through the Picos and Pyrenees and the Normandy beaches on the way back. I've put her under no illusion there will be long days in the seat, she's been fully briefed on the hardships. It was her idea to go by bike, its cost me ten and a half grand for a GSA to do the trip!

 

[gspod]

Sounds like you got it covered.

Have a great trip